'Metro', touted to be a thriller with a difference, is a dubbed movie from Tamil. It hit the screens today. Here is our review:

Story:

The film opens with Adhi (Shirish) torturing a man tied to a chair demanding information about a gold consignment and then after very authentic sequences about chain snatching gangs the flashback opens. Adhi is a reporter who with his friend works for a newspaper as a reporter. His father is a retired police officer, his mother (Thulasi), a housewife and brother Madhu (Satya) is a college student. Madhu’s college sweetheart pesters him to buy a fancy bike and cellphone to match other rich students, but his father and brother cannot afford the brands he asks for and this causes him to take a drastic step into a crime which leads to tragic results for the entire family.

Under the evil influence of his friends, Madhu gets into a chain-snatching to make a quick buck. Guna (Bobby Simha of the recent 'Run' fame) is the boss of his gang. And before Madhu's family can come to know about this, a tragedy strikes it. What is that tragedy and what does Adhi do now? What happens to Madhu in the end? This is the crux.

Analysis:

As a thriller, 'Metro' is quite faithful to its genre. The cast and crew prove to be a boon, no less.

National Award-winning Bobby Simha as the rogue villain Guna has very little screen time, but makes his presence felt with his intense performance. One could have taken more of him.

Shirish has given a neat performance, be it in the sentimental scenes with his family or the true-to-life action scenes. The story revolves around the character Madhu played by Satya for which both the actor and the director can take credit. Satya with very ordinary looks brings to life an everyday boy who can change into a hardcore murderer and criminal when he takes the bait of easy money. Sendrayan (as Adhi's friend) in the beginning scenes is menacing and shows a darker side and later comes good as a loyal friend who will do anything for his friend’s family. Thulasi has given another noteworthy performance as the boys’ mother. Yogi Babu gets one scene and succeeds in tickling the funny bones. The director has extracted uniformly good performances from all the actors in the film.

Cinematographer N.S. Udhayakumar is the backbone of ‘Metro’ who has set a raw tone that the script demands and maintained it throughout. Many shots like the mother’s photograph reflecting on the table upside down and the first bike ride of Sathya for a crime captured clumsily from the beach water drive home the point. M Ramesh Bhaarathi is responsible for some slick editing that adds to the thrill and the extreme top angle zoom out wide shots of Chennai often used to register the metro is brilliant. Though the songs by Johan don’t have any recall value they are an integral part of the story telling and his re-recording too is apt.

Director Ananda Krishnan should be appreciated for sticking to the core issue and not deviating at all. Dialogues are both realistic as well as stylish from even minor characters in the film. Great research has been put in to perfectly bring to the screens, the modus operandi of chain snatchers and kudos for the detailing along with the art director.

The rise of Sathya as a criminal is well documented, but how come his family is totally oblivious to it, especially when he rides a very costly bike and brags to his friends that 25 lakhs per month is not enough to support his lifestyle? The family bonding between Shirish and his parents is shown but not between Satya and the other members and hence in the climax when the brothers are at each other’s throats, the desired effect is completely nullified. The screenplay, which is for most parts realistic, changes tracks when Shirish turns into a filmi action hero who quite easily walks into the Gold mafia’s den killing the henchmen like a walk in the park, while the same den is shown as impenetrable in the first half.

Verdict:

True-to-life as well as cinematic. Good performances and technical output help.